Witching Season

Acts 16:16-18

One day, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave-girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling. While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.” She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.

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When I look over my shoulder,
What do you think I see?
Some other cat looking over
His shoulder at me
And he's strange, sure he's strange.

You've got to pick up every stitch,
You've got to pick up every stitch,
Beatniks are out to make it rich,
Oh no, must be the season of the witch,
Must be the season of the witch, yeah,
Must be the season of the witch.

"Season of the Witch" by Donovan

Most of the time, the day passes in a relatively uneventful fashion. More often than not, the day goes as expected. Sure, there will be the periodic blip on the radar, but nothing that is too far out of everyday experience. And then some days, everything is a little off center.

Paul and Silas were heading to the place of prayer when a girl just went nuts! She had a "gift" of divination" and told everyone with ears to hear that “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.” And she just kept it up! She was a dog with a bone and was not giving it up!

She was like the head of a circus parade telling everyone what was behind her, and Paul and Silas were not amused. So Paul exercised the spirit within her, ending her season as a seer.

Here's something odd, the girl is telling the truth. She's doing the right thing, but she's doing it for the wrong reason. She's telling the world the truth about Paul and Silas, but that spirit knows it will be nothing but a pain for Jesus, his apostles, and his disciples when shared poorly. So by the Spirit of Christ, the bad spirit was called out the girl.

This is our call, not just to do the right things, but to do them the right way. When we do them in a way to bring scandal to the gospel, God can keep us from doing it at all.